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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions.
This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization.
Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

Michigan's Isle Royale

wolves disappearing

Even as the state debates allowing wolf hunting, pack on island national park are in danger

Jim Lynch

The Detroit News

Isle Royale's gray wolf population has fallen from a high of 50 in 1980 to 8 this year. The pattern of decline hit a new low this past winter. )

Gray wolves are in danger of disappearing from Michigan's Isle Royale National Park, while these predators in the rest of the Upper Peninsula have experienced a major resurgence.

Michigan's wolf population has made a major comeback, growing from three wolves in 1989 to more than 650 today. By contrast, wolves on the Lake Superior island declined from a high of 50 in 1980 to eight recorded this year.

In past decades, freezing temperatures on Lake Superior would create a frozen bridge between the island and the Minnesota and Ontario mainland roughly eight out of every 10 years. It allowed wolves to cross the frozen water and maintain and bolster their population on the isolated island.Warmer weather now leads the ice bridge to form about once every 15 years, leading to the wolves' decline.

Seeking a solution

The situation would be worse if not for the Old Gray Man, as researchers and park officials call him — a wolf that wandered across the ice from the mainland to Isle Royale in 1997. After years of inbreeding among the island population, this single wolf's infusion of new genes helped bolster the numbers for a short time and showed researchers how weak the island wolves had become.

The pattern of decline hit a new low this past winter. "This last year was the first in more than four decades of monitoring that we haven't been able to detect any evidence of reproduction," said John Vucetich, a population biologist at Michigan Technological University, whose research focuses on the Isle Royale wolf population.

The National Park Service, which oversees Isle Royale, is continuing to gather evidence before deciding how to deal with the island's remaining wolves. It faces three options:

■Do nothing.

■Wait and see if they go extinct on the island, and then reintroduce the animals.

■Introduce two to four new wolves in an attempt to stimulate population growth.

David Mech, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who is considered an expert on wolves, favors an approach he calls "watchful waiting." It would allow the animals to disappear from Isle Royale if that's how things play out.

The drastic fall in wolf numbers matches an earlier decline in the island's population of moose — a main source of food for the wolves. In addition, the number of wolves dipped to 12 on several occasions before rising to healthy levels again.

"For 25 years, we've been concerned about these wolves, and each time I've counseled that it's better to wait and see what happens," Mech said. "I still think that's the right approach."

But Vucetich wants to introduce new wolves. Unlike prior declines in Isle Royale's wolf population, he said, this one is being intensified by human influence, namely climate change. The loss of regular ice bridges to the island has intensified inbreeding. Despite a large number of moose available for food, the annual percentage killed by wolves has dropped from a typical 10 percent to 2 percent last year. It does not bode well for the future.

"It could pretty easily be another four years before the wolves go extinct," Vucetich said.

A Park Service decision could come in October."Right now we're in fact-finding mode," said Phyllis Green, Isle Royale park superintendent. "We're very concerned about the population numbers, but we also want to make sure we make the right decision for the future."

Two Massachusetts Eastern Coyotes at their den site

Eastern Wolf in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

Aldo Leopold--3 quotes from his SAN COUNTY ALMANAC

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Aldo Leopold

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Aldo Leopold

''To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering."

Wildlife Rendezvous

Like so many conscientious hunters and anglers come to realize, good habitat with our full suite of predators and prey make for healthy and productive living............Teddy Roosevelt depicted at a "WILDLIFE RENDEZVOUS"

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Blog Disclaimer

This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time…I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. This blog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of my various thoughts and opinions, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today. All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. Rick Meril and WWW.COYOTES-WOLVES-COUGARS.COM make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.